Tag Archives: Rio

As a parent, one is always on the lookout for opportunities to take the kids out to something fun and exciting out of the routine. Thus, when I got the invite from Asiatic Public Relations to the Rio Fun Carnival, I immediately whatsapped the invite to my kids’ secretary (AKA Mrs DM) to check on their busy schedule.

“We have a play date at a friend’s house in the evening.”

Ah! Just my luck. There goes my chance to spend some quality time with ’em! And I was a bit behind on my hours logged as a cool dad since the previous weekend I had been tied up with accompanying Ustaadh Adnan Rashid, while he was in Karachi for AlKauthar Karachi‘s workshop Signs of The Hour. And I had another meeting/dinner coming up on Sunday night.

The phone beeped and it was Mrs DM. The kids wanted to skip the play date and go to the Carnival! Yay!

We were met at the gate by APR folks who guided us through to the special area where the evening festivities were to take place. There were various attractions for the kids like a clown and face painting.

There were also plenty of goodies to be had — popcorn and cotton candy without measure. IB (my elder son) must have had atleast 5 of those cotton candies!). And ofcourse there were plenty of ticky packs of Rio — Pakistan’s Favorite Cream Biscuit — for all to much on.

The evening’s festivities were conducted by the entertaining and hilarious Khalid Malik, who can get kids as involved as he can adults. Incidentally, I first met Khalid at a trip to the beach that APR organized on behalf of Coke and our paths have crossed many a times since.

Speaking on the occasion, Zulfiqar Ali Ansari, Head of Marketing at English Biscuit Manufacturers (Pvt.) Ltd. (EBM), the makers of Peek Freans RIO, stated, “When you think of Peek Freans RIO, you think of the fun-filled and flavourful experience it provides, especially for children, as they are the main target consumers of this product. We at EBM strongly believe that an essential part of growing up is to have an active lifestyle, and our event is aimed to bring home this message in a fun way.”

Prizes such as X-boxes, play stations, bicycles, toys, stationery sets and branded gift hampers were given throughout the evening to winners who were chosen earlier through a competition that required people to text unique codes printed on Peek Freans RIO packs to a designated number. There were some very happy kids from all over Karachi that evening with big gift boxes.